At the present time, the available awakening devices consist of a means for producing sound, such as by a bell, buzzer, siren, or horn. These devices are useful for awakening a group of people located in an area to be covered by a single sound device and that the persons affected by the sound of the device have normal hearing senses, since without hearing the sound the persons cannot wake up by the manner intended. Alarm clocks or fire-smoke detection systems when activated produce a loud shrieking sound to alert persons in the immediate area that they must wake up, as in the case of an alarm clock, or they must run away from the danger locality where a fire, smoke, or any noxious gas has been detected by the detecting device. In the event a deaf person or persons are in the area and are to be alerted, the sound alarm will produce no effect on them since they cannot hear it. A furher shortcoming of an alarm device, as in the case of an alarm clock, when the alarm sounds to awaken the intended person in a bedroom, other persons sleeping in the same room or in adjacent rooms may also wake up, thus somewhat defeating the purpose intended.
There has been a silent method, such as recurrently flashing a light from a clock, to awaken sleeping persons at a set time. However, the difficulty here has been that some persons are not sensitive to light when sleeping, and others may be sleeping on a side remote from the direction of flashing light radiation and, therfore, they may not sense the flashing light. In the case of a flashing light from a smoke detector, no one may even be affected thereby, especially if the detector device is located centrally in a home or similar location for detecting any smoke, fire, or noxious gases and produces a flashing light alarm.
To overcome these shortcomings, the present invention is developed to produce an effective and positive alarm signal which will awaken anyone, whether he is a person of normal hearing, partially deaf, blind, or totally deaf, without limitations of conditions as imposed by the present commercial methods. Also, with the use of the present invention, a person can be alerted of a danger of fire, smoke, or toxic gases occurring remote from his immediate surroundings. The present invention is provided with a detection system which is connected through electric wire or through atmosphere (such as by radio waves) to an awakening unit which is placed under the pillow of the sleeping person for awakening said person when a signal from a fire or smoke detector or from a clock at set time for awakening activates the awakening unit, which is experimentally found to awaken any deaf or normal-hearing person within about ten seconds.
In the case when the awakening signal is transmitted to the awakening unit by radio waves, the fire detector, smoke detector, or the clock is provided with a radio transmitter, which upon receiving a signal from any of these devices it transmits the signal through atmosphere to a radio receiver, which processes the signal into an awakening signal current or sleep-inducing signal current and transmits it to the unit that is placed under the pillow. In such an event, the detector-transmitter system could be located hundreds of feet away from the receiver and more than one person can be provided with a miniature receiver, thereby those persons living in a multistory building, such as a tall hotel building, can all be alerted by the signal (from the transmitter) to make an attempt to leave the place as fast as transportation appliances, such as elevators, are available. At the present time, such hotel fires starting in a lower-level floor will not permit those living in higher-level stories to immediately become conscious of the fire, or noxious gases emanating from a lower level gas storage bins, and many times lives are lost in fires that have started in tall buildings, beacause the sound of the alarm, if any, has not reached the fire victims until it is too late. It thus will be clearly evident that the present silent awakening device located under each individual's pillow will awaken him regardless of the physical condition of the individual; that is, whether the individual can hear, is partially deaf, or totally deaf.